My facts aren’t quite right in the video. Click below to get the full spec on their setup.

It turns out they’re currently generating about 30% of their energy needs from the solar install. However, they plan to keep installing until they are at 100% and beyond. Interestingly enough, Steve Shepard, the RayLen vitner, told us the cost of the installation was approximately $70,000, but they received a $40,000 tax credit from the government. Furthermore, the energy that they sell back to the local utility company pays approximately $0.28/kWh, whereas they only pay $0.09/kWh for what they use. That seems like a promising deal, and if they continue, they could potentially have a ‘rivaling revenue source’ to the incredible juice that they produce and sell. I highly recommend tasting the Eagle’s Select and the Carolinius (both red blends) if you get a chance to visit.

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We set a few goals a year ago:

2009 Resolution

1) Promote a lifestyle of nature and technology that enhances happiness and connects people with their environment and community.

Evangelizing every moment… connect to the source

2) Build a balanced global group of grapethinkers to share ideas and discuss global issues and events, while sipping a little vino for inspiration.

For sure, some new grapethinkers:

Linda Constantino, amazing painter and artist teaching illustrating the edible at SCAD

Alicia Griffiths, passionate artist in DC

Danielle Butler, vino lover and museum curator of Charleston

Jill Bentley, talented photographer capturing nature’s beauty

Franco Luisi, Italian negociant of Roma

Calvin Baldwin, event planner, organizer and new media marketing manager of RTP

Doug Fath, dynamic mentor and real estate developer of Philly

Lee Whitfield, designer and ecolist extraordinaire of Manchester

3) Continue to bring in clients that we can offer valuable services to, including marketing, technology development, and business development.

Worked with an amazingly diverse group of companies this year, providing consulting services, while continuing to learn and expand our vision:

Faithful Investments, Wealthy Passion, Sweet Spot Housing, KDM Global Partners, Lamprey Systems, SEER Interactive, Invite Media, Castelfeder Winery, Nistri Winery

4) Develop our first product, a global wine brand

This has been developed and will hopefully reach market by the end of the first quarter of 2010.  We’ll reveal the product soon!

5) Think positive, stay focused, spread love

Always…

Cheers to all! Happy 2010!!

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Welcome to the first taste palace

Finally found one after two months in this country

Ill hit you with the pomengranates right off the bat… boom

Apricots, japanese medlar, peaches, pears, plums… apples down there

Vegetable garden, sangiovese vineyard, olive trees

They make their own wine, they make their own oil. They grow all their own vegetables

Cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers…herbs, basil, salvia, thyme, rosemary

Pretty much got it all nailed

Thats Antonio, he’s the son that owns the place

We’re right aside of Siena, everbody knows Siena, I’ll show it to ya real quick

There’s Siena… haha… this is it… there’s Siena

But again, so we’ve got wine, we’ve got olive oil, we’ve got every fruit you can imagine, even pomegranate. Vegetables, herbs.

The only thing missing is what? Energy, right? Solar

Generate all this produce to sell back to the grid, generate energy to sell back to the grid. Bring people here… tourism. And not some pretentious bullshit where they come here and say… it’s spiritual… you’re gonna feel it, and feel god, and all that.

Come here and just eat the food, just eat it. See the energy and see the money they make… because it’s alot.

That’s it… this is, this is it.

You start bringing these places, creating these praces, growing these places all over the world, and you’ve got a taste economy. You’ve got a transcendence from materialism back to a connection to nature becuase it makes people feel better, it makes them have more fun, it makes them more money, it makes the world healthier.

And it’s land too, so there’s all this space to generate energy from that thing (sun). So weird how this camera makes the center black. Anyways, there’s a lot of energy coming from that down into all this stuff (vines).

That’s it. The taste palace

Welcome… to taste

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My theory is he used his infinite curiosity as a feedback loop to direct his body, hands, and eyes to work and operate in a balanced fashion (ambidexterity), which resulted in greater structural and energetic harmony between the two sides of his mind. This allowed him to have clear and simple insights into innovation…. lol, I know. Just being there filled me with a type of inspirational energy I’d never felt before.

Odd Art Plaza outside of Museum

Vitruvian Man, the ESSENCE

Birthplace of Leonardo

There was a wedding in Da Vinci’s home the day we were there

Striking view from Da Vinci’s home

Full Moon on the ride home

Vitruvian Man in Vinci

The Vitruvian man

The essence of a human being

Practically you see he’s inside of a cube and a sphere at the same time

It was Da Vinci’s way of saying that the anatomy, the shape, the essence of a man, of a human , of a woman… is perfect.. it’s the essence of the universe… it’s the chiave, the key

It’s probably one of the most well recognized symbols in the world other than the Coca Cola brand

We are here in Vinci, Italia, which is the small town where obviously Leonardo Da Vinci was born and raised, and nurtured his genius

You see right here we’ve got the vigneto, the vineyard, and the olive trees

It’s what the locals here in Italia say is the key to their good health… olives and good wine

Leonardo’s Home

Now we’re at the house where Leonardo was born. We’re a couple kilometers outside of Vinci.

You’re probably wondering why… was Vinci, Leonardo Da Vinci, called Da Vinci. Da Vinci means from Vinci.

And it’s cause he was just kind of a common guy, kind of like a peasant I guess.

And he took his dad’s name. It was like Leonard Di Piero, I think… Ser Piero. Ser Piero Da Vinci… and then he just shortened it to Da Vinci… from Vinci.

See here are some gorgeous olive trees… I wonder if that had anything to do with his genius?

There’s his house right there.

Another really interesting thing, I mentioned ambidexterity earlier, was that he mainly actually wrote with his left hand. He was known like Michelangelo to switch, from his left hand to his right hand. Back and forth… kind of like that, ha.

Yeah, anyways, another interesting thing was that he actually wrote (some Italians are looking at me over there) he actually wrote from right to left, right to left… opposed to left to right. And he wrote backwards.

And they say it was so that he could disguise all of his major plans so they couldn’t read them.

I think it was because it exercised the other side of his mind… the right side… the creative side.

I don’t know… those are just a few facts. I’m here… this is the birthplace of the greatest genius in the history of our time.

Olive trees, ambidexterity, good wine… I tend to think it’s the simple things that converge into genius.

But who knows?

Ciao

Wedding

(Wedding cheers)

That’s pretty cool

We’re here at the house where Da Vinci was born.

The greatest genius in the history of humanity… LOL

Where he was born

And of course, we’ve got all the olive trees goin on down here

Lexus and the olive tree

Just had a wedding here

Full Moon

And on the way back from Vinci, we’ve got a little Luna Piena, piena? Luna Piena? (Si)

Luna Piena or Luna Nuda… full moon

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See more of the winemaking process at the Castelfeder winery…

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Click below to see the castle

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Transcribed:

I’m at a winery here in Abruzzo, which is the eastern coast of Italia

That’s the Adriatic sea right there

Yea, I’m not going to be working here, but the negociant I’m staying with Franco is here doing some work making sure some orders get sent over to the US right

Here, I’ll walk around so you can see what’s going on here

It’s not much, but sure is beautiful tho, that’s for sure

The sea right there

Got a little vineyards, where are they, they’re over there, don’t know if you can see em

Right through there, right along the sea

There’s the conveyor belt, takes the grapes up and crushes em in there

Then they brew a bunch of vino in those vats.. boom.. boom… boom

Just had an amazing lunch down by the sea, right down there

See down there

Had fresh seafood from the Adriatic, finished it off with fresh fruit and some rosata rose wine, and a little espresso

That’s pretty much it for here, heading back to Roma tonight, and then up to Toscana

Show you some videos up there, we’ll see

Ciao

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